Resources

The Great Resignation Shows Great Need for Paid Leave

Myth Busters Shared Decision-Making

Report on Patient and Family Engagement: Improving Health and Advancing Equity

Getting Started Toolkit for Patient and Family Engagement: Improving Health and Advancing Equity

Virtual Visits: 5 Ways to Better Engage Patients & Families

Trust Is a 2-Way Street: Fostering Trust in Patient-Provider Relationships

Recommendations for Patient and Family Engagement: Improving Health and Advancing Equity

The Build Back Better Act would provide up to four weeks of paid family and medical leave for working people who time away from work to welcome a new child, address their own serious health condition or care for a loved one with a serious health condition. The paid leave program would replace income on a sliding scale, with the lowest-paid workers receiving up to about 90 percent of their usual wages, and a typical full-time worker receiving about two-thirds.

Universal paid family and medical leave is critical to American families’ financial security, especially for low-income women and workers of color. Establishing national paid leave by passing the Build Back Better Act would provide this vital benefit to the 77 percent of workers who don’t have paid family leave, and the 60 percent of workers without paid medical leave.

Due to the lack of paid family and medical leave in the United States, many people — predominantly women — are forced to choose between caregiving and their job.

Paid family and medical leave is a crucial component to the success of the Build Back Better Plan because it is known and overwhelmingly popular and frames this as the American Family Plan. Paid leave is one of the best-known elements of the Plan, and it is well-liked.

Universal paid family and medical leave is critical to American families’ financial security, especially for low-income women and workers of color. Establishing national paid leave by passing the Build Back Better Act would provide this vital benefit to the 77 percent of workers who don’t have paid family leave, and the 60 percent of workers without paid medical leave.

Nationally, 16.5 percent of full-time, year-round workers have earnings of $100,000 or more – an estimated 19.2 million people. Due to the gender wage gap, men are more likely than women to have earnings above this threshold: 20.6 percent of men (13.5 million) working full-time, year-round are paid $100,000 or more, compared to 11.2 percent of women (5.6 million).

It is more apparent than ever. The lack of a national paid family and medical leave policy in the United States costs working people their health and financial security – and the price tag is rising.

The undersigned represent more than 50 reproductive justice organizations and Black policy leaders committed to advancing Black maternal health through critical policy change. We applaud the investments in the House of Representatives’ Build Back Better Act text, which help address the deep inequities Black women and birthing people experience.

Research shows that midwifery care provides equal or better care and outcomes compared to physician care on many key indicators, including higher rates of spontaneous vaginal birth, higher rates of breastfeeding, higher birthing person satisfaction with care, and lower overall costs. Community-based and -led midwifery services are especially powerful.

The Mercy Birthing Center illustrates the potential of a flourishing midwifery-led unit within a hospital. The center is a separate unit operated by CNMs within Mercy Hospital St. Louis. It was established in response to women’s growing interests in receiving support for physiologic childbearing

This report outlines the evidence that supports midwifery’s unique value across different communities, the safety and effectiveness of midwifery care in improving maternal and infant outcomes, the interest of birthing people in midwifery care, and the current availability of, and access to, midwifery services in the United States.

ISSUE BRIEF | National paid family and medical leave would improve the health and economic security of the more than 20 million people in the United States experiencing a substance use disorder (SUD).

FACT SHEET | National paid family and medical leave would improve the health and economic security of the more than 20 million people in the United States experiencing a substance use disorder (SUD).